When it comes to proving the benefits of broadband deployment, we frequently focus on the macroeconomic issues – the big-picture impact of infrastructure and access to high-speed networking. But the Internet Innovation Alliance and the Small Business Entrepreneurship Council (SBEC) recently looked at broadband from a microeconomic standpoint.

The upcoming Summer Olympics in London isn’t the first time that the UK has been the host nation for the games. There’s an interesting and unique history to the Olympics experience in Great Britain. The first time that London, England was chosen as the host city for the Summer Olympics was way back in 1908.

The second time, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the planned 1944 Olympic Summer Games to London in June of 1939. However, a very significant unscheduled event occurred that changed those preliminary plans — that being World War II — and the 1944 games were cancelled.

Where is broadband deployment most widespread and thus most successful? Countless surveys, including some that we’ve referred to on the Connected Life Exchange, show Asia as the undisputed leader — especially South Korea.

But INSEAD (formerly known as the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires) tweaked its methodology for tracking network readiness in its Global Information Technology Report (GTIR) between 2011 and this year, the rankings of its Networked Readiness Index (NRI) came out slightly different, and Asia’s presence faded.

Today, the term Entrepreneur is used freely by a lot people, typically to describe someone who has started their own business or launched multiple new ventures. Since being a part of the Shoreditch tech scene, I’m now starting to understand the unique characteristics of people that can best be described as “entrepreneurial” — and then letting my mind wander back into my own life experiences.

I’ve been intrigued by the amazing ways that people are using mobile phones in the developing world. From agriculture to banking to education, mobile connectivity is providing all sorts of services that would otherwise be out of reach, and helping to lift thousands of people out of poverty.

But one of the most interesting things about these mobile efforts is how many of them are aiming not just to provide direct services, but to help entrepreneurs help themselves – and thereby build stronger economies.

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